Friday, May 1, 2009

Obstacles to our Christian Message (part IV)

The last of the obstacles to our Christian message is this...

We only know acceptance or rejection and can't handle appreciation:

Modernity says that there is one and only one "Big Story" or metanarrative and truth; Postmodernity says there is not ONE metanarrative or truth; Christian Postmodernity says that under the metanarrative of Christ, there are many many truths about knowing Christ.

The old polemic that there is only ONE truth out there is poison to the health of our church at local and denominational levels. Moderns can't seem to get their heads around the fact that there may indeed be room for multiple interpretations of the truth. Can we not center ourselves around a belief in Christ and then allow the rest of the "issues" to be part of our corporate discernment?

I am not saying that if you disagree about homosexuality, abortion, or even the lordship of Christ ("a way" or "the way") one has to worship in the same church community, but can we not still hold each other as valuable members of a community at a denominational level? Can we not model for the world living together with even the greatest of disagreement without resorting to spiritual and emotional violence? If not the church, then who?


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